Which, in a nutshell, explains my cautiously optimistic vote in Vico’s poll…Look: awesome as our defense is, there’s just no way they’re going to STOP Oregon’s offense; but I’m fairly certain that they will be able to CONTAIN it – make them work like crazy for every yard, take more time than they want to, etc. Add the combination of the Ducks’ propensity for unforced errors and the Buckeyes’ ability to force them, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe that we can keep Oregon in the neighborhood of 14-17 points.

A few observations on this point:

-That Maehl kid had a great night, but for fuck’s sake – the kid the Beavers had on him looked like he should still be in High School, right down to the too-big-looking helmet. That 1st-half TD down the right sideline was just one of a handful of big plays for the Ducks last night where it was GLARINGLY obvious that they cannot hope to pull that sort of thing off against Ohio State.

- Another example of that type of play was the 52-yard TD run by LaMichael What’s-his-face – I mean, the Beavers had that play totally strung out to the sideline but failed to close the deal. That kind of thing NEVER happens to the Buckeyes’ D – 9 times out of 10, I think, we tackle that kid for a loss on that play, and on the 10th we allow just a couple yards. Better athletes, better skills, etc.

- Masoli is fun to watch when he’s running the ball, but is clearly: not really all that as a passer, vulnerable to pressure and prone to making potentially disastrous mistakes (sound like anyone we know?).

- It bears mentioning here that LeGarrette Blount is terrifying, and qualifies as a bona fide wild card in all this – but still, unlike vs. the Beavers, vs. Ohio State he’ll likely have to break more than just one tackle (and that of the arm variety to boot) to run wild, and further won’t be likely to just run through any of our LBs like they aren’t there for an extra five yards.

When it comes to our offense vs. Oregon’s D, it’s real simple: I see no reason why we can’t move the ball on the ground. We did it against PSU and Iowa, and both of those defenses are better/tougher than Oregon’s, and PSU’s in particular is at least as athletic/fast (that last observation is for all those people – and they’re already out in force – who are all too willing to swap out proclamations of “ESSEEESEE SPEEEED” for those of the Pac-10 variety). The wild card in THIS situation, of course, is the running threat Terrelle poses – Oregon did not have to worry about that AT ALL vs. the Beavers and were thus eventually able to get a handle on things (30 – ! – points in); it’ll be interesting to see if they can get a handle on the zone-read, misdirection, etc. on the ground, let alone the power rushing (AND not to mention the play-action threat – sooner or later, hopefully sooner, TP and Posey are gonna hook up on one of those passes when it matters.

So: I see us being able to more or less dictate the pace of the game on both sides of the ball, and I think the balance of the matchup between each team’s Os and Ds slightly favors us. Ohio State, by < a TD.

Didn’t we play Oregon State in the 1984 season???

I’d like to see a “speed” package with Hines in rather than Spitler, Heyward getting some tackle time to combat their inside zone read, Nathan Williams at end and corners play some sort of press coverage. And I want a pony for Christmas. It probably wouldn’t hurt to have someone with coverage skills keeping an eye on their WR, Maehl, I think his name is. You know, the skinny fast white guy. The Buckeye defense can probably tackle better that OreSt’s; man, that was some piss-poor tackling.

Offensively, you’re (or BFA, anyway) probably right in that we’ve got to keep our hands on the ball. Run, run, play action, sprintouts, whatever; just play keepaway from Oregon’s offense.

The other item that may fall into our Tresselball approach is that Oregon doesn’t seem to have a very good punting game. Granted, this was very limited sample (2 punts), but at 28.5 YPK, meh..